Literature\ Sc. with Commerce. \ i 
and teach him to admire that wife, that omnif- 
cient Being, whofe fuperintending providence 
infpe&s and regulates the whole, even the moft 
minute parts of his creation. 
And fees with equal eye, as God of all, 
A hero perilh, or a fparrow fail.* 
I believe, few will controvert the advantages I 
have pointed out, as arifing to the Gentleman and 
profeffionalift, from the ftudy of the Belles Lettres 
and philofophy; but I am lorry to fay, many 
are the adverfaries we have to encounter, if thefe 
arguments be extended to another wealthy clafs 
of men—the Merchant and Manufacturer. The 
commercial man, fay they, fhould confine his 
knowledge to trade. His compting-houfe fhould 
be his ftudy; his ledger his hourly amufement. 
Gold and filver are the only metals with which he 
ought to be acquainted ; and of thefe to know no 
more, than the different coins into which they 
are formed, and the current price of bullion. For 
poetry, painting and mufic, he muft have no at¬ 
tachment, no tafte for engravings, but thole of 
bank bills, and, if a fingle philofophical idea 
fhould enter his head, thefe inveighers againft 
knowledge would expeCt to fee his name imme¬ 
diately in the lift of bankrupts. 
* Pope’s Eflay on Man, Ep. I. 
To 
